'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No evil' is a common saying, but many people do not know that it has pagan origins. It's a proverb and the two most common interpretations as per information on Wikipedia:
- In Buddhist tradition, the tenets of the proverb are about not dwelling on evil thoughts.[4]
- In the Western world both the proverb and the image are often used to refer to a lack of moral responsibility on the part of people who refuse to acknowledge impropriety, looking the other way or feigning ignorance.
I will be using the western explanation for the purpose of this blog post. The Bible has a lot to say about human sight, hearing, and speech. One thing that is clear is God created human beings with 5 physical senses and a Sixth spiritual sense for a purpose: to give life real meaning, substance, and clarity; our bodies and souls are created to sense and search for God.
Many people have a heart, sight, and hearing problem. I'm not talking about people who are actually blind or deaf or have heart disease, but those who have physical eyes/ears/hearts that have not been damaged by disease or accident; the corneas are working properly, light reflects as it's supposed to, transmitting and processing the images from the outside world through the eye into the brain/the hearing components appropriately transmit the sounds into the brain; and the physical heart is pumping life giving blood through the body appropriately. Many will pass an eye exam, or be prescribed glasses and with the glasses they can see the world properly; many will pass a hearing test, or be prescribed hearing aids and with the hearing aide they can properly hear the world; many will pass a heart exam, if not they will be given treatments and procedures to help it do its job properly. Even though many can physically see, hear, and their hearts are pumping blood, they are spiritually blind, deaf, and dead as stated by Jesus in
Matthew Chapter 13. Jesus stated that the prophecy in
Isaiah 6:10, was fulfilled by this generation, that those who disbelieve the gospel of Christ/God may have ears for hearing but do not hear, eyes but they do not see or perceive, and they have no understanding in their heart. This is not any more true than it is today.
The world has completely bought into the deceptions of Satan as evidenced by all the problems, abuse in each nation and in the homes. You know the Bible is true when people try to blame the current problems in the world on Christians and the Bible. Really, what does the Bible tell Christians to do? Does it tell Christians to lie, cheat, steal, kill, murder, rape, abuse, take advantage of, hate, despise, ridicule, gossip, that they are better than anyone else? Does the Bible tell Christians to kill, cut of the heads, crucify, burn up, shoot, hang, blow up people who do not believe the Gospel? The answer to both of these questions is unequivocally NO! The Bible instructs Christians to do the EXACT OPPOSITE! and another proof that
Isaiah 6:10 is true is that in the current church, those who call themselves Christians but they support and applaud abominable practices like homosexuality and fornication. What is sad is that you can't even tell the difference between most of the churches and the world. True Christians are to be called out, different, peculiar, set apart, "
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
Romans 12:2. What does the word 'conformed' mean? According to Dictionary.com, to 'conform' means :
To act in accord with the prevailing standards, attitudes, practices, etc., of society or a group
The synonyms for the word conform are:
comply with, abide by, obey, observe, follow, keep to, stick to, adhere to, uphold, heed,accept, go along with, fall in with, respect, defer to;
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When you understand what it means to 'conform', it should bring into understanding the true actions one who calls themselves Christian should engage in. When a person gives their time, talents, and treasures to a subject/project/person/entertainment, what ever, it shows what that person is 'conforming' to. It shows what that person is 'agreeing' to. It shows what that person 'accepts'as being right and OK. For example, you don't agree that having sex outside of marriage is right, but you love to watch movies and TV shows about adultery and fornication. Those who do this say, 'It's OK to watch this kind of stuff, I'm not actually doing it, I know that it's fake, God doesn't care it's just entertainment'. Really, the Bible doesn't have anything to say about what God's people should and should not engage in? Many who say they are Christians go to church services on Saturdays and Sundays, but the rest of the week they live like heathens. God's people are commanded to live HOLY lives EVERYDAY.
- I will set nothing wicked or evil before my eyes. Psalm 101:3
- Abstain from ALL forms of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:22
- Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil, AVOID IT, do not travel on it. Proverbs 4:14-15
- Shun profane/worldly and idle/empty chatter for it only leads to more ungodliness. 2 Timothy 2:16
These are only a few of the scriptures. but throughout the Bible followers of God are called to obey His commandments AT ALL TIMES. So when you are 'conforming' to this world you are agreeing with the world's practices which is in complete disobedience to the Word of God, instead of conforming to this world, we who are children of God should, "flee all kinds of evil and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness." 1 Timothy 6:11. So for a true Christian, this would influence the movies they see and pay money to watch, the time/money spent on concerts, vacations, the relationships they pursue and engage in. Jesus asks rhetorically, "What fellowship does dark have with light?" The answer is NONE.
Understanding starts in the heart. Now this post is not going to focus too much on the heart issue,but a brief talk about is needed because the condition of a person's heart is how their eyes and ears perceive things in the world. The heart is a very important part of man and is mentioned over a 1000 times in the Bible. There are many different views on what the heart of man is, but for this post I will just point out the most common view. The heart is the core part of a human being, it is comprised of the mind,thoughts, beliefs, morals, desires, and personality of a person. Each person's 'heart' separates them from one another. This is demonstrated in the Parable of the Soils told by Jesus in
Matthew Chapter 13 verses 1 through 23. Jesus described four different conditions a person's heart can be in: Wayside Ground, Stony Ground, Thorny Ground, and Good Ground. This is a whole other post by itself, but I am just mentioning it as stated before as a base for talking about the eyes/ears. A persons' own values, upbringing, views. personality,thinking patterns all combine to make them receptive or not receptive to hearing the words of the gospel or hearing from God. There is also the enemy Satan who also plays a part in the shaping of a person's heart. He and his evil minions go about whispering and deceiving and tempting all those who leave themselves open to his evil influence.
The Bible says that the heart of men is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things,
Jeremiah 17:9. One has to ask themselves are babies born with a wicked heart? This is most definitely debatable, but what the Bible says is all of mankind has been cursed, so yes babies are born with a sin nature, but I don't personally believe that babies start out with a wicked heart. The base nature of all humans is the knowledge of good and evil. The CHOOSING of which side to pick is based on the child rearing and development of the child, but there is a time in every person's life where they have the mental capability to make their own choices, this is called 'the age of accountability'. Now the Bible does not clearly state when this is. Many try to state and teach that it's a fact that the age of accountability is 12 years old, some believe it's 20, but this is not in the Bible. The Bible does say that everyone will have to give an account of their lives. Now God is not a stupid or unfair God. Would a baby who has not lived, not made any decisions have to give the same account as a 90 year old person? Of course not. We don't understand or know how baby's/children are treated other than God does take care of baby's/children who die young. Now only God truly knows the inner core of any person. Some children advance quickly, as can be seen how kids can out think many adults. But what other humans cannot see is the true condition of their heart. Only God knows this. All we can do is conjecture about the issue. If you have two 7 year old kids-one acts like an angel, obeys all their parents directions, doesn't ever break any rules and then you have another 7 year old who disobeys their parents rules, doesn't follow directions. So is one more guilty than the other according to God's standards? One could argue yes, the one who disobeys is the 'bad' one. But here we would be acting as if we are God, because we don't know the inner workings of the one who disobeys. Maybe they don't understand their parents rules, maybe they disagree with their parents rules and think their way is better, does that mean they are doing something bad? It is clear that parents are to 'bring up' 'teach' 'groom' a child, teach them the ways of God. I believe, and I am not saying this is correct, is that every person comes to a point in their life where they truly understand the difference between right and wrong, for some this may be at 5 years old for others it may not be until 21 years old, but when ever that point is in a persons life is only truly known by God. The key word is 'understand'. When a person is told something is wrong, they have the choice to believe it's wrong or not. Because the truth about the human condition has been revealed by God in the Bible and through His creation, even though we are born with a sin nature, He gives us enough information to make the correct choice in rejecting evil and believing good. The heart is built to know good and evil but the conditioning for either side is by nurture and experiences, but the Word of God can break through and change any stony/dead heart.
There is much more that can be said about the heart, it's a complicated issue that really could be addressed in a full length novel, but for now, just this brief description is given.
There was a movie called 'Shallow Hal', It was a about a guy who was very shallow only looking at the external world for what he thought was beautiful. His 'eyes' only saw what his mind perceived as beautiful, but a motivational speaker changed Hal's 'heart' and he started to see the 'inner' beauty or ugliness of people. He saw the true spirit of the person, not their external physical self. His mind was changed so his eyes perceived things differently. There are some doctors who have given their patients placebo's, harmless/ineffective medications, but the patient is told it's something else and believes it, the patient gets well, thinking it's the pill when it was just their own actions that led to their healing. Thousands of studies are done on human perception. Studies show that animal assisted therapy helps people recovery faster and better. Just being around a dog helped decrease a patient's anxiety and harmful hormones. A lot of mental health problems are caused by irrational and distorted thinking. A person can think they are in danger and their body reacts as if it really is when it's not. The mind is a very powerful thing which is evidenced by the advancement in technology, but the heart/mind is also a conflicted thing as evidenced by the fact that man still suffers from the SAME issues since the beginning of time. If book knowledge was all that man needed, why can't we stop the violence, blood shed, poverty, greed, abuse? Why can't man 'learn' from our mistakes? Because man is cursed and so is the earth, sin entered into the world through one man Adam, this curse is on man and the earth. This is why there is no program, no law, no social study, no science, nothing of mankind that will change the nature of man except God. Only God can remove the curse and He will soon return to do just that.
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| Twilight Zone's Episode: Eye of The Beholder November 1960 |
"The eye only sees what the mind comprehends." Robertson Davies. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." The truth is we see what we want to see as demonstrated in a Twilight Zone episode where a lady under goes surgery to look 'normal' because in that society distorted faces were considered normal rather than clear undisturbed faces were. The condition of a person's heart sets them up for spiritual victory or spiritual defeat. Take these examples for instance, the Hebrews were rescued miraculously from slavery. They actually 'saw' with their physical eyes, the miracles performed by God, but when it came time for them to enter into the land that God had promised them, 12 men were sent to spy out the land; a majority of the people listened to eleven of the spies who returned and said that there were giants in the land and that they could not overcome them. The majority of the people listened to the spies rather than God. But two had a different 'perspective' of the situation; yes, there were giants in the land, but in their hearts they believed and knew what their God was bigger. Even though Caleb and Joshua had not physically seen God, but could physically see the giants, they still were not afraid or dismayed of them because their heart was right with God. Their mind was conditioned to believe God.
Now why is that even though all the Hebrews physically saw God do impossible things, some of them came to their own conclusions about God despite what they had physically seen? I believe it's a combination of free will and the devil's influence. A person is free to think anyway they want, but that doesn't mean that what they think is right. God clearly expects people to 'think' correctly. He does not stand for excuses for faulty thinking, case in point, when the Hebrews choose not to go into the promised land because they believed the 11 spies and were afraid, God punished them by killing immediately the spies who gave the false report and He killed off all those who disbelieved by having them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The spies and the people who believed them were looking through worldly/blind eyes. Caleb and Joshua were looking through godly eyes.
There were many other instances of the Israelite's seeing through worldly/blind eyes. Abraham, through godly eyes, left his country without knowing exactly he was going, he did not look or think about what was going to happen to him, he believed God and he left as God instructed. Now a person does not just forever have godly eyes, it takes diligent and persistent work to stay on the short and narrow road, but we are all human and will slip from time to time as seen by Abraham, a man who is touted with having great faith, but at times that faith was questionable when he lied about his wife being his sister for fear that he would be killed because of her beauty. In those times he was looking through worldly eyes. Another famous Bible character, David, a man noted to be a man after God's own heart. Wow, David really knew God, he had godly eyesight when he killed the bear and lion and then Goliath. David saw beyond the physical Goliath, he saw Goliath through God's eyes, Goliath was nothing compared to God. He continued to have godly eyes when he slew thousands of God's enemies.
But one night, a night that would shape the rest of his rule and kingdom, he was not protecting his heart, worldly eyes/mind were in play and the enemy, the one who roams around looking for who he can devour, found a ready and ripe morsel in king David. We are not told about the specific behaviors of David before the infamous 'seeing Bathsheba on the roof incident', we are told he had stayed back from the battle. Before this David was doing mighty things for God, conquering enemy after enemy, God was blessing David with the spoils of war, yet there was an enemy in his camp, 'his self' his flesh and Satan. We are not told much about David's private life, but we do know he prayed a lot but we are not told how often, what religious activities he was involved in, he was just going to war and one day he decided not to go to battle, Why? We are not told why, we can only guess. Was it pride, as he had won so many battles what was the point of going to another, he had capable commanders to do the work for him? We don't know but I don't believe in coincidences. I believe Satan orchestrated the situation knowing David was vulnerable. We are told in previous scriptures that the Spirit of God was with David, that The Spirit had been taken from Saul. So where was the Spirit of God this night? We are not told that 'Satan entered into David, but I wonder if this is what happened, because we are told in Luke Chapter 2 verse 3, that 'Satan entered into Judas'. Now Judas was responsible for deciding to leave Satan an opening to influence his decision to betray Christ, Judas did not even think about his decision, he just did it, the same as David. We are not told that David debated in his mind if he should do this evil act, no he immediately responded to lust with no thought to the consequences what so ever. When we leave ourselves open, Satan can blind our eyes from the truth and consequences. This does not give us an excuse because we being open in the first place is our choice.
We are warned over and over to
BE ON GUARD! "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith,Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Hebrews 12:1-2. It is God who gives us a new heart and new mind so that we can see with godly eyes, but He does not lobotomize us, we are not automatons/robots, we still have our free will in conjunction with His. When we have godly eyes, our perspectives about life issues should be different than the worlds. True believers should not fear the terror by night nor the arrow that flies by day-the devil goes around shooting his fiery arrows of wickedness- nor the destruction that lays waste at noonday. We cultivate and fertilize our heart by putting off the old man, and no longer walking in the way of the Gentiles, no longer on the broad road that leads to destruction, instead the Christian is feeding on the good food of the word of God daily, praying daily, walking in faith daily, holy living, and honest work and service to others. Godly eyes affects how we see our problems and situations, it affects our self esteem and courage. The devil has the world fooled and many have the 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No evil' attitude. Their hearts are open to the lies and influence of Satan. When are hearts are right, our eye sight and hearing will perceive and understand the truths of God.
There is going to be a Day of Judgment, and God will judge everyone who has ever lived, His wrath is going to poured out on all the wicked and ungodly. The eyes of the wicked need to be opened and the ears unplugged so they can see and hear the truth. The Good News is Believing in Jesus saves us from the righteous wrath of God. But that is not all, He gives us a new heart and mind NOW, and we receive some of His blessing from heaven NOW and are equipped to be able to live a life that is holy and acceptable to Him NOW.
1. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is real, He lived and died and rose from the grave.
2. Believe that you are a sinner, repent-turn from your sins and realize and accept you need Jesus.
3. Confess that Jesus is your Lord and God
4. Find a local Bible preaching church that does obey the commandment for water baptism for the remission of your sins and to identify yourself with Christ.
This is just the first step to a lifelong journey of growing in truth and love with the God who created this earth and everything in it, including every human being that has ever lived.
Bible verses related to this post: Isaiah 42:7 & 16 & 18-20; Mark 8:17-18; Isaiah 6:10; Matthew 13:14: Romans 12:2; Psalm 101:3;1 Thessalonians 5:22; Proverbs 4:14-15; 2 Timothy 2:16; 1 Timothy 6:11; Matthew 13:1-23; Jeremiah 17:9; Numbers Chapter 13 and 14; Luke 2:3; Hebrews 12;1-2; Pslam 91:5-6; Ephesians 6:16; Ephesians 4:27
references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys;
http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/heart/
https://www.uclahealth.org/pac/Documents/volunteering/PACArticle.pdf
http://www.notable-quotes.com/m/mind_quotes.html
